Explore how these companies make an impact via their brands
While most people know that branding helps companies, not many truly appreciate the substantial role branding plays in helping companies expand their outreach, improve their bottom line and accelerate growth. In short, how branding helps transform a business. Here are 2 companies that achieved great success due to their strong branding:
Singapore Airlines (SIA)
Even during a year stricken with the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline carrier managed to rank as the 6th most valuable brand in Singapore with a brand value of $1.78 billion in 2020, according to Brand Finance. The brand recognition Singapore Airlines built over the years managed to sustain it in Singapore’s top 10 most valuable brands. Clear and consistent internal branding that is complemented with its business strategies gives Singapore Airlines its powerful external brand image.
Their vision is to strive for the highest professional standards and continue to lead with new innovations. Brand values include the pursuit of excellence, customer first and safety.
Due to strong internal branding that allowed all departments of the company to be on the same page, their business strategies have been strongly aligned to their vision and values. They were the first to introduce many innovations that raised industry standards such as having world-renowned chefs curate their in-flight menus in 1998, enabling audio and demand capabilities on all classes in 2001 and having fully flat beds in first-class seats. Changing their fleet of aeroplanes regularly aligns with their brand value of safety and conducting intensive training for inflight staff that are about twice the length of the industry norm, upholds their values of excellence and customer-first. Flight stewardesses are required to serve customers at eye level, including serving food with the right hand among other rules, illustrating their stringency in pursuing excellence. SIA also has external brand touchpoints that had been efficient in conveying its brand’s values and purpose. The Singapore Girl is Singapore Airlines’ brand ambassador. Flight stewardesses embody this ambassadorial role by adhering to a standardised makeup palette, ensuring a consistent image. The unique sarong kebaya uniform gives Singapore Airlines a memorable brand identity.
Due to the strong and consistent branding and business strategies, SIA has now reaped tremendous benefits from its strong brand reputation. The Singapore Girl has become a successful brand icon, even featured in Madame Tussaud’s Museum in London. As the choice airline for many travellers, some benefits from their successful branding include attracting loyal customers, talented employees and business partners. Singapore Airlines has a reputation of having excellent customer service and in-flight services and has never reported an annual loss since 1972 until the COVID-19 situation. According to Channel News Asia, SIA was also featured in Randstad’s annual ranking of most attractive employers in Singapore for many years due to the appeal of being a flight staff. Many educated young individuals apply to SIA with the belief that they would be equipped with critical soft skills embodied by their flight staff. With a reputation of being safe and reliable, SIA was also the chosen launch customer of Airbus’ A380 model. SIA is truly an excellent example of how a strong brand could lead to great business success, but some may argue that it competed in a time when fewer companies competed on branding.
Another great example is Razer, the go-to brand for gamer gear. Razer accounts for over 30% of global game mice and keyboards. Its gaming mouse is listed as the best gaming mouse in the world by multiple prominent gaming and technological sites such as PC Gamer and TechRadar.
Its vision is to be the greatest gaming brand which it intends to achieve by bringing gamers closer to the games they love. One of their most prominent brand values is being phenomenal with no toleration for mediocrity. They position their brand as a company that is ‘made by gamers for gamers’. Its strong vision, mission and values have been within the company’s culture where the company is always thinking about the next challenge and how it can get to the next level to keep bringing gamers closer to their favourite games. Similar to SIA, the company’s strong internal branding allowed its business strategies to be aligned with its brand fundamentals, with everyone on the same page. The Razer Deathadder V2 has been dubbed as the top gaming mouse according to PC Gamer. As the company’s focus is on the mission, they have come up with different innovations that created a gaming ecosystem for gamers, bringing every gamer closer to the game community by allowing them to enjoy a seamless gaming experience. This ecosystem consists of highly-raved gaming mouses, gamer laptops, patented chroma keyboards, phones and software. These innovations have also propelled the company’s growth.
Benefits that Razer attained with their strong branding include a cult following by gamers, strong employee retention and successful partnerships with large corporations.
Razer quickly became one of the most sought-after brands for gamers. It has 125 million users on its software alone and had the highest revenue of US 1.2 billion in 2020. It also has a strong cult following, such as 11 million followers on its Facebook page and avid fans tattooing Razer logos and even the CEO’s face on themselves. Many customers adore the brand because Razer made them feel proud of identifying as a gamer and they truly appreciate how Razer products are tailored for them. All of these cannot be achieved without a strong focus on the brand’s mission and values within the company, and how these are portrayed to consumers.
Employees on Comparably also revealed that the company’s mission is the main reason why they stay at Razer.
Razer achieved a 48% year on year growth from 2019 and 2020 and its strong brand reputation and cult following had made it attractive to many partners, including giants like Google, Microsoft and Tencent.
These 2 case studies are just some examples of how branding could transform one’s business. Are you ready to transform yours?
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